I write romantic suspense and warm, family relationship type novels, often with a touch of humor. Many of my books have featured animals as key players--dogs, cats, llamas, cockatiels, horses...even our son's pet albino corn snake, Sssssid, who appeared in my first Superromance back in 1999.

Animals have been a big part of my life since I was a child. How about you? I hope you'll become a "blog follower" here (see the right-hand column for a place to click) and will come back often. So...let's talk about our pets!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Deborah Raney...pets galore!! And her latest book-- Almost Forever

by Deborah Raney

Growing up on a farm, I've owned and loved my share of cats. I
married a man who wasn't so crazy about those of the feline
persuasion--that is until I manipulated a birthday gift of a tiny
black kitten from a friend. My new husband couldn't say "no" to
that, could he? Ebony soon won Ken over, and we've loved a string of
housecats through our thirty-some years of marriage since.

But after moving to a house with a fenced-in yard outside the city limits five years ago, we accumulated some cats––eleven to be precise! Our now 16-year-old tomcat, Frosty, made the move with us and happily took up residence in the big doghouse on the back deck.

Then one morning just after we got settled in, a gorgeous calico cat showed up on our front porch. When she was still there a few weeks later, we claimed her and named her Biscuit. But we soon realized Biscuit's roly-poly figure was due to more than the generous portions of cat chow we were serving her.

We moved her to the back porch and hoped Frosty (who was not the kittens' father) would be a gentleman and share his comfy home. Nothing doing. End of discussion. We were disappointed in his manners, but with the arrival of kittens imminent, we fixed a cozy box under the eaves for Biscuit and filled it with warm towels ready to receive kittens.

One morning late that March, I went out to the deck to find the two cats had traded homes! I have no idea how those negotiations went down, but the following morning I found Biscuit, snug in the
doghouse, licking a precious miniature of herself. By noon "Gravy" had two sisters and a brother.

We enjoyed every minute of the ten weeks those kittens lived with us. Frosty was so attentive you'd have thought he'd fathered the kits. It wasn't easy to say goodbye, but we found good homes and got
everyone settled in with their new families. Wouldn't you know it, several days before Biscuit's vet appointment to be "fixed," we
started to suspect she would be blessing us with another bundle of kittens--and soon!

Batch Number Two--five precious little girls--made their entrance into the world two years ago, on July 11. Much to Frosty's dismay, we immediately moved Biscuit and the little ones to the basement where we could make sure this was the last litter. Early that September,Batch Two moved out onto the back deck where they frolicked and scampered and quickly made friends with Frosty. It was a summer full of laughter. A summer to remember forever.

In a perfect world, all nine kitties could have lived all nine lives right here in our backyard. But it's not a perfect world, and far too soon October came, and one by one, the kittens went off to new homes, thanks to my author friend Kim Vogel Sawyer. (Kim calls herself a kitty broker and it's an apt title, since she adopted Maizie, placed Snickers with her parents, and found a home together for two other kittens.)

Every kitten had a home––except a little yellow and white fluffball we called Sundae. Surely we could keep just one? After much begging and pleading (our daughter's) and a few tears (mine), we convinced the master of the house that in spite of lyrics to the contrary, three cats in the yard really does make for a very, very, very fine house.

––Deborah Raney

Almost Forever

by Deborah Raney

A Hanover Falls Novel

from Howard/Simon and Schuster

Unearthing a lost memory may cause her to lose everything she holds dear. but could it also set her free?

Volunteer Bryn Hennesey was there at the Grove Street Homeless Shelter the night five heroic firefighters died at the scene. Among them was her husband, Adam.

Now a terrifying absence of memory has her wondering if she might, in some way, be responsible. Garrett Edmonds' wife, Molly, was the only female firefighter to perish in the blaze. He was supposed to protect the woman he loved.now she's the one who's died a hero. How can he go on in the face of such unbearable loss? And what started the fire that destroyed the dreams and futures of so many? Investigators are stumped. But someone knows the answer...

Deborah Raney books always captivate me! Almost Forever is a beautifully written and enthralling read. It made my heart sing, dance, cry, and turn more than a few flips!

~CindyWoodsmall, New York Times best-selling author

As a fan of the very talented Deborah Raney, I expected a great read and I got it in the richly emotional Almost Forever, a story of faith, forgiveness and redemption. It began with a gripping scene and proceeded to hold me enthralled to the end. Don't miss this one!

~Karen Young, author of Missing Max and Blood Bayou

DEBORAH RANEY is at work on her 20th novel. Her books have won the RITA Award, HOLT Medallion, National Readers' Choice Award, Silver Angel, and have twice been Christy Award finalists. Her first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title. Almost Forever, first in her new Hanover Falls Novels series, will release in May from Howard/Simon & Schuster. Deb and her husband, Ken Raney, enjoy small-town life in Kansas. They are new empty nesters with four grown children and two precious grandsons, all of whom live much too far away.

Note from Roxanne: If you are reading this on Facebook, come on over to the All Creatures Great and Small Blog for lots of great posts and pet stories from your favorite authors! http://roxannerustand.blogspot.com

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Note about THE OLD HORSE TRADER posts: I wrote a series of feature articles on Verne Upmier for The Horse Show Times magazine back in the early 1990's. Those were special times, sitting in his house with him as he pulled out old photographs and then told his stories with a twinkle in his eye. He was elderly by then, but still trading horses...the most honest horse trader I've ever met, and such a charming man. He loved sharing those stories, and I could have listened to them forever. I came across a stack of those old magazines recently, and thought that perhaps a new generation of readers might enjoy some of his tales. Let me know what you think! There are dozens more...and I look forward to adding them here.

If you live in this area and have some of your own Verne stories--or have any other fun or unusual stories about your own horse (or other pets!) experiences--I'd love to add them. Just let me know!

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Lots of people find their way back to this and other blogs using a variety of methods to stay tuned for new posts (keeping scrolling down, for various options for doing so) but here's an easy way: click the white "follow" rectangle above the patchwork cube of pictures (see above) to become a Google follower of this blog. I'd love to see you again!

The Daily Puppy

Available June, 2010 at www.steeplehill.com, Wal-mart, christianbook.com, and your local bookstore.

FATAL BURN

Available February 5, 2010

September 2009 release--don't miss it!

August 2009 release--still available in the stores!

May 2009 release--still available at www.steeplehill.com and at www.christianbook.com

HARD EVIDENCE (1st book of a trilogy, with VENDETTA and WILDFIRE following) Available at Amazon.com

VENDETTA Available at amazon.com

WILDFIRE Available at amazon.com

About the books...

Some of the titles are part of a series:

1. Hard Evidence, Vendetta & Wildfire.

2. Almost a Family, A Man She Can Trust, & A Temporary Arrangement.

3. The "Operation" books.

4. Final Exposure (9/09), Fatal Burn (2/10) & an untitled book coming out in 6/10.

I've posted my bookcovers here, with a note about where they are available.

The newer ones are available in bookstores, Walmart, Kmart, drug stores, and so on. Your local bookstore can probably order copies after that. But...they are soon gone, and then the internet is the best place to check. Try steeplehill.com, eharlequin.com. christianbook.com, amazon.com, or Barnes and Noble (bn.com)

If those sources don't have a title, you can check with me. I always buy a couple of boxes of each release from my local indie booksellers (the amazing Bobbi and Donna at Basically Books--ladies who are wonderful supporters of all authors and readers!) so if you e-mail me, I might still have some copies of a book you want, at cover price plus media mail shipping, and can autograph it for you. You can email me through my website at www.roxannerustand.com